Saturday, April 15, 2017

You need to stop now. Stop talking about autism, about autistic people. Stop pretending to know about people whom you don't even interact with, whom you have shown nothing but disdain for.

When you started going to autism conferences and doing the talks, it was a big thing. I'll give you that. You were part of the beginning of autistic voices demanding to be heard, to be taken seriously by professionals and researchers and parents. It feels good to be making a difference, doesn't it?

But you're no longer making a difference; now you're harming people with what you're saying. So you need to stop.

What have you said? You've said that autistic people need to "get [our] butts out of the house and get a job." You've only deigned to pay attention to "high functioning" people who not only have jobs, but "careers." This ignores the fact that for many autistic people, there are systematic and environmental barriers in place that prevents us from getting jobs, never mind leaving the house. This ignores the fact that even if autistic people had the training and skills to look for work, the economies in many countries make it increasingly difficult for disabled people of many types to look and gain employment. This ignores the huge amount of depression and PTSD present in the autistic population, which does impact whether someone can work. This ignores that someone's worth isn't based on whether one can work. On whether someone can talk, on what skills or talents a person has. In other words, Temple Grandin, you are being ableist, to other autistic people and other disabilities. You speak from a place of unchecked white privilege, without knowing about the lives or truly interacting with other autistic people, yet you try to speak for us. Your words are taken on as gospel by parents and professionals, but in truth, you know nothing about us. And you need to stop, right now. Signed, ~Corina Becker

Me "Okay, thank you. Then you should know that Autism Speaks USA still list Lindt as a corporate sponsor. Lindt is not a corporate sponsor?"

Lindt "Hi Corina, Thank you very much for letting us know that our logo is still on their site. We've advised our USA team to get in touch to have our logo removed since they are not a corporate sponsor.